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Video: Palestinian woman shot, left to bleed by Israeli soldiers

This video posted by the news agency PalMedia shows a young Palestinian woman left to bleed on a sidewalk in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after she was shot by Israeli soldiers on Tuesday morning.

By evening, Palestinian media reported that the woman, 18-year-old Hadil Salah Hashlamoun, had died of her injuries.

Instead of being given immediate medical treatment, the video shows her being pulled roughly out of the frame of the camera, her scarf coming off as her head drags on the ground.

Israeli settlers and soldiers can be seen standing around, and in some cases smiling and laughing in the background.

Wattan TV reported that the young woman was left to bleed for more than 30 minutes.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was also killed overnight by Israeli forces near Hebron.

Local sources told Ma’an News Agency that Diyaa Abdulhalim Talahmah, 21, was killed by the army during a raid in the village of Khursa.

Israel has claimed he tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at its soldiers.

These shootings come just days after Israel loosened even further its already lax permission to its forces to use live ammunition against Palestinians.

Checkpoint shooting

Wattan TV named the young woman in the video as 18-year-old Hadil Hashlamoun.

The Israeli army claimed that she was shot after she tried to stab a soldier, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported. But photos and eyewitnesses contradict this account.

The spokesperson said the woman approached the checkpoint in order to carry out the attack and Israeli forces responded with gunfire.

The army said that the young woman was treated on site by Israeli medics and then taken to hospital.

Her father, Saleh Hashlamoun, told Wattan TV earlier on Tuesday that his daughter had been hit in the abdomen several times and was in serious but stable condition at Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem.

No weapon

An image published by Youth Against Settlements shows Hadil Hashlamoun surrounded by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in Hebron.

The photos show a person dressed in a long black dress and headcovering, carrying a briefcase. In none of the images is she holding any sort of weapon.

Several Israeli personnel are pointing weapons at her.

Youth Against Settlements suggests the photo sequence shows that Hashlamoun tried to leave the checkpoint before she was shot.

An image published by Youth Against Settlements shows Hadil Hashlamoun lying injured.

Other photos show the person lying on the ground with at least one bullet wound, the same briefcase visible near her.

Additional photos show the scene of the shooting, including blood on the ground and bullet holes in a metal door, after the victim was removed.

Eyewitnesses

One eyewitness, a European activist, told The New York Times that Hashlamoun had simply opened her purse to allow it to be inspected, at the request of a soldier.

“When she was opening at her bag, he began shouting: ‘Stop! Stop! Stop! Don’t move! Don’t move!’” the activist said. “She was trying to show him what was inside her bag, but the soldier shot her once, and then shot her again.” Several more soldiers raced over and also fired at her.

A second witness, 34-year-old Fawaz Abu Aisheh, told the Times that Hashlamoun appeared “frozen” and in shock. Abu Aisheh said he had opened a gate inside the checkpoint so that Hashlamoun could back away from the soldiers. She tried to do so.

“Even if she had a knife, she would have to leap over a barrier about a meter high to reach a soldier,” Abu Aisheh added. “There were six or seven soldiers with heavy weapons. There was no need for that assassination.”

The Times said it had seen photos corroborating these accounts. Abu Aisheh appears in some of the images.

This falsified the army’s version that the Israeli had been in imminent danger when he fired.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem warned that the high-level backing Shomer received would only reinforce an “unlawful message” to occupation soldiers that they are “allowed and even encouraged to shoot to kill a Palestinian stonethrower, even if he’s running away and does not constitute a danger.”

In December 2012, Israeli Border Police officer Nofar Mizrahi claimed she shot dead 17-year-old Muhammad al-Salaymeh at a checkpoint in Hebron as the teen held a pistol to another soldier’s temple.

Police later arrested several Israeli Jews in the abduction and burning to death of the youth, which occurred at a time of intense anti-Palestinian incitement in Jerusalem.

The systematic impunity Israel affords its occupation personnel and settlers means that Israeli claims are almost never seriously investigated and Palestinians have no recourse for protection or justice.

Hadil Salah Hashlamoun was murdered twice: once when they shot her, and again when they left her to bleed uncared for in the streets of Occupied Palestine.

What could this young woman have possibly done to these hyper-vigilant killers that required them to open fire on her? The article quite rightly points out that the Israelis have produced no weapon of hers to display before the cameras.

They killed her because they saw how she was dressed, and the symbolism frightened them. And they killed her because she was Palestinian, which frightens them even more. Finally, they killed her because they knew they could, and there would be no repercussions.

These murders are an everyday occurrence in Occupied Palestine, along with a thousand other crimes and indignities. When will we be able to say, enough? When will we be able to prevail on the US government to end this vile "friendship" with Israel?

To the grieving family of this martyred woman- yes, martyred, for what other word can we use?- go the sympathies and condolences of all who work in support of the liberation of her people. The struggle continues.

When 91 years old German woman is being prosecuted for the Nazi era crime, after 65 years!!!!These 21st century Israeli soldiers will be prosecuted, charged and punished or like Jews 65 years ago, now Palestinians are also faceless, humanity less sub-humans????

I contacted my member of congress and told them to end all military and economic aid to Israel. Please contact your representative and tell them to end all aid and weapons transfers to Israel. Boycott Israeli companies operating in the occupied territories. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims family and friend. God bless her soul.

There needs to be an independent investigation of what appears to be cold-blooded murder of an innocent Palestinian woman and meanwhile the soldiers who pulled the trigger be placed on administrative leave. The Israeli crimes against Palestinians has just been added another tragic page.

As a Jew, it bothers me to no end that the Israelis have learned nothing from the history of our people. For centuries, we were hounded, attacked and killed, and driven out of country after country. This happened even to the grandparents of current Israeli Jews. And now to see them turn around and perpetuate the exact same injustices on another group of people is nothing short of horrific. This must stop. There must be a just peace and reconciliation.

Little is made of the absence of photographic evidence in support of the official story. The current furore is described as a "dispute over circumstances". The article does however reproduce a photo of what appears to be a knife lying on the ground after the shooting, with the helpful explanation that IDF forces have identified it as the one they claim she wielded. The statements of civilian eyewitnesses comprise the second half of the report. Their insistent claims that the young woman presented no threat to the soldiers are in this way positioned as less noteworthy than the army's primary, privileged and defining account. They are cast in the role of someone disputing a dominant narrative, when the editors could have as easily placed their eye-witness statements in the lead paragraphs and left the role of respondent to the killers themselves. Incidentally, as has become policy at the Guardian with respect to all reporting and commentary on Israel/Palestine, no readers' comments are permitted. Ironically, that service is called by the editors, "Comment is Free." This policy was instituted following last year's horrific massacre in Gaza by the IDF. So fierce was the tide of denunciation of Israel in the comment threads at that time, that no article since on the broader subject has been accompanied by comments. Opposition to genocide had become an embarrassment to the paper.